On January 6th, best-selling author of The California Field Atlas, Obi Kaufmann, returns to the San Francisco Book Club to present his latest in the Field Atlas series, The State of Fire: Why California Burns. In his artful yet analytical work, Obi Kaufmann asks: How do we live with fire? What makes fire essential to a healthy and biodiverse Golden State? With the same solution-minded ethic as his much-admired The State of Water: Understanding California’s Most Precious Resource (Heyday, 2019), Kaufmann presents fire as a force of regeneration rather than apocalypse. As the culmination of the first cycle of his California Field Atlas series, the State of Fire explores the transformation of the resource landscape of California, from its ancient origins through modern challenges to its future possibilities. Heightened with lyrical prose and backed by up-to-the-minute, well-sourced science, Obi demonstrates how we learn from the deep ecological past to uncover truths about the potential future of the California floristic province and the role that people have played and will play in the millennia to come. From the maelstrom of pressing social and ecological challenges, Obi emerges to share a deepened love for the natural world, and a refreshingly hopeful vision of California’s future.
An in-person and virtual presentation by Obi Kaufmann, author, illustrator, and naturalist